Tag Archives: Edmonton

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors

Edmonton Oilers Offseason Talk: Yamamoto to Chicago? OEL to Edmonton? Plus More NHL Rumors!

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

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Oilersnation

Seravalli: “My sense is the Oilers have someone that’ll take Kailer Yamamoto for free”
  • “On Monday’s edition of the DFO Rundown, Frank Seravalli and Jason Gregor discussed whether any of the other Canadian teams will use a buyout this summer. Some names that were mentioned as candidates to be bought out are Matt Murray of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Joel Armia and Mike Hoffman of the Montreal Canadiens, and Kailer Yamamoto of the Edmonton Oilers.”
  • “When it comes to Yamamoto, Seravalli said that “My sense is the Oilers have in their pocket someone that’ll take Yamamoto for free,” so a buyout ultimately won’t be necessary.

BLH’s Thoughts: Lots of smoke coming out of Chicago with regards to who this team might be that’ll take Yamamoto. They’ve got lots of cap room and the Tyler Johnson connection is painfully obvious. If you don’t know, Johnson’s mom was Yamo’s power skating coach when he was just learning to skate and both players hail from Spokane, Washington. 

Actually, I’m told the Oilers and Hawks had discussions regarding Yamamoto last summer that carried over into the 22/23 season. If you remember, Edmonton was looking to free up cap space and they were shopping Foegele, Puljujarvi, and Yamo. So this. and possibly some other future moves, has been in the works for a while (as most trades are). 

Just on Montreal for a second, I recently pondered upon if they might use Juraj Slafovsky to move up in the draft to get Fantilli and Bob Stauffer stopped himself just short of suggesting the same thing with George Laraque on Oilers Now yesterday. Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but I haven’t seen anybody suggest that online so far. Wouldn’t it be interesting if that rumor started to pick up steam as we approach the draft. 

Personally, if I was the Habs GM and I knew that the Capitals were hell-bent on drafting Michkov and he was hell-bent on going to the Caps, I would bend them over a barrel and get a huge overpayment from them. Could they get Connor McMichael, Ivan Miroshnichenko, and a swap of first rounders this year (8th for 5th)? Doubt Miroshnichenko is a consideration here though. The Caps surely have their eyes on the next big Russian 1-2 punch if they’re busting their asses trying to draft Michkov.

Oilersnation

NHL Notebook: Sens likely to trade Alex DeBrincat, possible landing spots for Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and more
  • “Over at Daily Faceoff, Frank Seravalli speculated that Ekman-Larsson will look to rebuild his value on a one-year, show-me deal with a contending team.”
    • “He can double-dip, he’s already getting paid basically $2.5 million from the Canucks for the next number of years — you’ve got that in your pocket already. Go sign a one-year deal somewhere with a contender: Boston, Tampa, go down the list. There’s a whole bunch of teams. I would imagine even the Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights. A lot of teams could add a left-shot defenceman. That makes sense.”

BLH’s Thoughts: And I think Edmonton should be on that list too.

Despite already having Kulak and Broberg on the left side, they do have veterans that can play on their off-side like Ekholm and the aforementioned Kulak and Broberg. 

Do they want to go into this season depending on Desharnais and Philly B or would it be a more prudent idea to go with an established NHL veteran who’s got some playing rapport with Ekholm and would offer a massive upgrade on the club’s blueline depth?

Nurse-Ceci (ugh!)
Ekholm-Bouchard
OEL-Kulak/Desharnais/Broberg

I think the Oilers should be all over OEL. He’s only 31 and if they’re handing out “show me” deals to Connor Brown, what’s the hurt in giving one to Oliver Ekman-Larsson too? They want to go for it this year, don’t they? The cherry on top is that IF he outperforms Ceci or Kulak, they can trade those guys! Or if there’s an injury to somebody or a player is shitting the bed some night in the top-4, he can slide in seamlessly. 

C’mon… It makes too much sense. All of it and there’s the Swedish thing too… 

Fun Fact: OEL shares an agent with recently acquire forward Jayden Grubbe as well as former Detroit Red Wing Darren Helm and one-time Edmonton Oil King scoring sensation Dylan Guenther. 

Trade Rumors

Spector’s Hockey
  • James Nichols cited Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman wondering about whether the Devils could put Yegor Sharangovich on the trade block.
  • Sheng Peng speculated over 10 possible trade destinations for Erik Karlsson… Four of Peng’s trade destinations – the Edmonton Oilers, Florida Panthers, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs – have previously shown an interest in Karlsson.

BLH’s Thoughts: Sharangovich is a name I’ve been hammering you guys with since the beginning of the month. He just put up back-to-back 40+ point seasons, so I’ve got no idea why the Devils would want to get rid of him. They’d rather pay Timo Meier $9M/yr I guess…

I think it’s a longshot for Edmonton to trade for Erik Karlsson but I wouldn’t put it out of the realm of possibility. All they need is another team to help facilitate the deal. San Jose eats 50%, Team B eats 50% of that, and the Oilers have a $3M top-pairing Norris Trophy winning dman on their team. 

Imagine Edmonton going into the 23/24 season with this on their backend:

Nurse/Karlsson
Ekholm/Bouchard
Ekman-Larsson/Kulak

I mean, let the Swedish Revolution begin! Why stop at defensemen? What would Boston want in order to swap Ullmark and Campbell? Could Calgary be convinced to send Backlund to Edmonton? Arvidsson is apparently on the block in LA…

A man can dream, can’t he? 

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Edmonton Oilers 2019/20: My NHL All-Time Undrafted Team

With the draft lottery coming up this weekend, I thought it would be kind of fun to go against the grain a bit and do up a team of NHL greats who didn’t even get drafted! But first I want to talk about some more current events with regards to hockey.

Edmonton a Hub City, Really?

I’ve said this all along and I still believe it to be true as we speak, even though Edmonton has reached the “final six” potential destinations for hockey to resume play (alongside Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, LA, and Vegas), I believe that OEG’s bid will ultimately fall short OR it will be a fallback option in case things fall apart in another city, like if Vegas gets overrun by COVID-19 cases. By overrun, I mean the city has to go back into shutdown.

Safety isn’t the no.1 concern for the NHL as the league attempts to finish the 2019/20 season and the league makes that painfully clear every time it opens its trap. So… Servers at restaurants in public need to wear masks everywhere else except where the NHL is going to be hosting hockey games in the middle of a pandemic?… And what’s the difference between a bartender and a server anyhow?

I honestly think the league is hell-bent on trying to recoup lost revenue with little to zero concern as to who might get hurt in the process.

This is getting very interesting. Edmonton is really going hard here for this bid and what nobody is really reporting on in that market is if players, agents, GMs, and most importantly, the families of everybody involved actually want to go to Edmonton (or The Rocky Mountains as it was presented by the Alberta Premier… #facepalm).

This is a massive factor that I’m not sure many are considering. Sure, Edmonton can be gorgeous during the summer but it can be right down miserable too. Alberta had 23 tornadoes last summer in addition to an average temp of 16 degrees celsius (which sounds delightful considering where I live). I recall plenty of hailstorms and thunderstorms too… And if it goes the other way, the heat is ridiculous! It’s so bloody dry and you just can’t be bothered to head out lest you enjoy the feeling of sunburns or actual burns from things like seatbelts or bike seats.

Now, if you’re indoors, none of that is going to matter, but what human in their right mind is going to want to stay indoors when the Rockies are across the street? And by ‘across the street’ I mean 4 hours away… Ask any Albertan, if you haven’t experienced Alberta’s nuclear mosquitos, you haven’t lived.

All facetiousness aside, Vancouver and Vegas are much much better options coming from the point-of-view of the family. But, just using Edmonton’s history in the free-agent market as a gauge, the players just aren’t into that city. No fault of Edmonton’s! The city simply doesn’t have what it takes… Yet.

ON THE OTHER HAND…

There’s this,

If COVID-19 is weakening by the day, then that whole rant above is probably for nothing. Sure, we’re seeing some massive spikes in positive cases recently, but how many of those cases are life-threatening? How many folks are landing in the ICUs and in the end, I suppose, how many people are dying after becoming infected?

If the league is getting told that the virus is weakening with every passing week, then, of course, they’ll march into Vegas. Why wouldn’t they? MEGA BUCKS AWAIT! And it’s Vegas… If the NHL is going to allow its players and their families to travel all across Alberta to help them feel “comfortable”, what’s stopping them from doing the same in the area around Vegas? An hour or two via airplane in nearly every direction from Sin City will get you to places like Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Salt Lake City. An hour or two from Edmonton will get you to places like Saskatoon, Calgary, and Vancouver. Tough choice if safety isn’t a concern…

It’s a weird thing this virus is. I’m in Taiwan and it’s virtually non-existent yet. A few people on the street are still wearing masks and I think we still have to wear them whilst using public transport. I think a lot of it is that wearing a mask is socially encouraged and if you don’t and you’re coughing or sneezing, people will give you the stank eye or possibly scold you in public. It’s a part of life in these parts and hopefully, folks will grasp onto that in North America.

The All-Time NHL Undrafted Team

What’s more difficult than building a team through the draft? It’s building one outside of it! The way this is going to go is that this team has to include players who had the opportunity to be drafted but weren’t. So that takes Wayne Gretzky out of the running since he was one of the Edmonton Oilers priority selections when they entered the NHL in 1979 and thus was never eligible to be drafted by an NHL team.

I’ll also add that these selections are from 1969 onward. You can view the ultimate list here.

Let’s start with the goalies!

  1. Ed Belfour (1988-2007)
  2. Curtis Joseph (1989-2009)
  3. Sergei Bobrovsky (2010-Now)

Eddie the Eagle and Cujo are right in my wheelhouse as I watched them dominate the NHL during their primes. These two are amongst the greatest goalies in NHL history and the fact that they never got drafted blows my mind! Another thing that should have your brain matter in a tuff, these two combined for just over 1900 games played in the NHL (963 for Belfour and 943 for Joseph). Only Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, Patrick Roy, and Terry Sawchuk are ahead of them.

Honorable Mentions: Chico Resch, Dwayne Roloson, and Jon Casey

Next, the defenders! Here are the top-ten best-undrafted blueliners in my opinion (your order may vary).

Borje Salming (1973-1990)
Jamie Macoun (1982-1999)
Steve Duchesne (1986-2002)
Dan Boyle (1998-2016)
Charlie Huddy (1980-1997)
Marty McSorley (1983-2000)
Andy Greene (2006-Now)
Mark Giordano (2005-Now)
Dan Girardi (2006-2019)
Brian Rafalski (1999-2011)

I didn’t want to mix up the shooting hands here so I went with the traditional righty/lefty combos or else we’d have had mostly lefties.

First Pair – Salming/Boyle
Second Pair – Huddy/Rafalski
Third Pair – Duchesne/McSorely

It was tougher than I thought trying to pair these players up but in the end, I figured Salming and Boyle would be a very nice puck-moving pair plus they’re a couple of real tough SOBs. Huddy and Rafalski would bring an even-keeled all-round game to the ice. I just remember Huddy cleaning up a lot of messes for Paul Coffey back in the day and Brian Rafalski being a key component to the Devils and Red Wings blue line despite being one of the smaller players to play the game. I’d have to check but Duchesne and McSorley might’ve been actual partners on defense for the Kings at one point. I couldn’t pass on the 2nd highest scoring undrafted defenseman on this list in addition to the toughest…

Honorable Mentions: Mark Giordano, Jamie Macoun, Andy Greene

Let’s follow that up with the forwards! I’ll keep it brief or we might be here all day!

First Line: Artemi Panarin – Adam Oates – Dino Ciccarelli
Second Line: Steve Thomas – Peter Stastny – Joe Mullen
Third Line: Geoff Courtnall – Joel Otto – Martin St.Louis
Fourth Line: Chris Kunitz – Mike Ridley – Tim Kerr

On the first line, how can you argue with the Russian skill of Panarin and the playmaking of Oates (his assists alone, 1079, would have him top-5 in scoring amongst undrafted skaters) in addition to the unmatched ferociousness of 600-goal man Dino Ciccarelli?

The second line features speed and grit in the form of Stumpy Thomas as well as the mind-boggling intelligence and playmaking of one of the highest-scoring European players ever, Peter Stasny, all the while sidled by the pride of Hell’s Kitchen, NY and one of the USA’s great all-time goal scorers, Joe Mullen.

On the third line, The left-wing continues to provide lightning-fast toughness with Geoff Courtnall and the right-wing brings us a late-blooming scoring sensation and NHL MVP in Marty St. Louis. Their center is none other than the towering Joel Otto who made a career of going up against some of the best pivots in the game and never backed down. His near 2000 PIMs speak for themselves.

Right-wing on the fourth line brings us one of the greatest net-front presences in the history of the NHL and three-time All-Star, Tim Kerr. His center is the criminally underrated Mike Ridley and the left-winger on this line is the rambunctious 4-time Stanley Cup winner, Chris Kunitz.

What I didn’t know is that Adam Oates is the only undrafted center to have played over 1000 games. He played 1337 games, the most out of any undrafted player, but the next closest center was Peter Stastny with 977. That’s nearly a five-season difference!

Honorable Mentions: Greg Adams, Kelly Kisio, Dave Poulin, Mats Zuccarello, Mark Pavelich, Marian Stastny, Ulf Nilsson.

Sorry, the tone of that portion of the post kind of got away from me there as it went on.

Puck Racism

The sales are starting to trickle in with this design and I’m going to spam the hell out of it on my website and the BLH Hockey Instagram because I feel passionate about it and I feel like Hockey is Diversity deserves the proceeds that I’ll be donating to them.

So, please. If you’ve got an extra $20 lying around and you want to do a good thing for good people, click the pic down below and grab a t-shirt, a mask, a onesie, a tank top, or some stickers.

Hockey is Diversity is a German group whose aim is to draw attention to the ethnic diversity in society, which goes beyond the sporting borders in order to sensitize people interculturally. The diversity that has long been regarded as an enrichment in sport as a melting pot of people of different ethnicities, cultures, and religions should also be transferred to society.

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Edmonton Oilers, Fancy Stats, Michael Sifeldeen, NHL

The Case *For* Kris Russell

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There has been a lot of noise made in the last couple days in the Oilogosphere about Kris Russell and how he’s literally the worst hockey player to ever hockey. Many of the advanced stats purveyors just have a field day when it comes to Russell and his (real or perceived) deficiencies, mostly centering around his basement-dweller numbers in categories like Corsi- and Fenwick-For. They really, truly fail to understand what professional hockey general managers see in the guy. The fact that his on-ice shooting percentage and save percentage is historically through-the-roof and currently 2nd amongst Oilers d-men (along with his PDO, too), are often brushed aside as “luck” or “flukey.”

Boy oh boy, isn’t there a word for selectively applying the statistics that help reinforce your preconceived notions and support your argument, while simultaneously ignoring or underplaying the ones that work against you?

From what I can tell, from watching almost every one of the Oilers’ 25 games so far this season, Kris Russell is an enigma that defies conventional stat-tracking. Watching him, seeing his play, I just cannot understand how this guy keeps getting such shade thrown on him by the pundits. He’s like the hockey player equivalent of that kid in your high school class who shows up looking sloppy and unkempt and gets sneered about by his teachers who don’t expect anything from him, but keeps getting good marks on his tests and constantly outperforms his perceived shortcomings. The things that Russell does well aren’t very easy to measure in Corsi derivatives, and the things he isn’t strong at are hyper-inflated by those very same metrics.

But the sheer arrogance of some of these writers who, I fear, legitimately feel their armchair analysis is superior to that of a Stanley Cup winning general manager and the teams and teams of people he surrounds himself with is astounding. In fact, Chiarelli himself noted when questioned about his initial pickup of Russell that they knew all about the reviews and numbers on him. And according to the internal, unconventional statistics the Oilers have access to (read: non-Corsi-derivative), Russell is currently sitting 2nd in the NHL amongst all defenders in clean offensive and neutral zone entries. And in the pressure system the Oilers employ, this type of skillset is immeasurably valuable.

You know how you can see how valuable it is? By watching Russell play hockey for the Edmonton Oilers. By seeing how he gels with Sekera, and how relatively smoothly and quickly he’s picked up playing on his off-side. (A feat many of the naysayers are unwilling to acknowledge the difficulty of.) Perhaps listening to Sekera himself –who praised Russell from Day 1 saying how “easy” he makes his life — would be another good place to start. Maybe acknowledging the fact that, while yes, an NHL-high number of blocked shots might indicate a propensity for having a history of being stuck in the defensive zone too long, it’s also an indicator of a warrior mentality – someone who is routinely willing to sacrifice his body as a last-ditch effort to stop a scoring opportunity and according to Woodguy, blocked shots cut down on dangerous fenwick. It’s also just simply a fact that shots against are going to happen, and when they do, it sure must be nice for the rest of the Oilers knowing they have a guy who is absolutely going to jump in front of them and take the punishment they entail. It must be nice finally having a couple veteran defenders on our second pairing with very recent playoff experience who can chew up minutes and help guide the next generation in their development. It must be nice having a quick-skating D-man who stays poised in PK situations and never really looks flustered or panicked.

Listen, I was as anti-Russell as the next guy when we first signed him. I saw all the stats and heard all the doomsday predictions that came along with them. And I’m a big fan of fancystats! I use them poorly and with an air of superiority all the time! But here are the objective, observable facts: we’re an above-.500 hockey team that is pretty seriously in the playoff conversation at the quarter-mark of the season, which has been so obviously out of the question by this time during the Decade of Darkness(TM), it’s not something we should understate the importance of. If you don’t think Russell can be said to be partially responsible for that, you haven’t been paying attention. You haven’t been watching him play. If we sign him for another 3 or 4 years at some value <$4.5M/per, I take that deal every day, and I think Peter Chiarelli does, too. And he’s smarter than us and gets paid far more handsomely than us to make that call.

Come fight me on Twitter @sife

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Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Oilers Post Game Report, Michael Sifeldeen

Post-Game Report: Oilers vs Calgary (10/12/2016)

Game result: Oilers 7-4 Calgary

Apparently it was “80s Night” over at Rogers Place for our first ever NHL game at the new barn. What a racket! 11 goals! What era even is this? So there were a whole lot of things to like about this game, and some head-scratchers. Let’s go through them in point-form because it’s too late to worry about complete sentences:

Things that were awesome:
– Chiefly, Captain Connor showing up for 2G-1A-3P in his first game of the year is a pretty damn good look at what’s to come for his sophomore season. CANNOT wait to see it unfold
– Maroon getting the first goal in Rogers Place was really cool. He was so stoked on it. Love this guy
– Kris Russell was really good. Guys. Can someone direct me to the nearest bakery serving humble pie? I was shitting on this guy as much as the rest of them because of how awful he is from a fancystats point of view, but he really shone tonight with 2 assists and several solid defensive plays that directly saved very likely Calgary goals. (In case you weren’t confused enough yet, his all-situations Corsi For on the night was 41.67%, and 5v5 was 48.28%. Apparently he is cursed on paper.)
– Larsson looked pretty good, too. Poised. Doesn’t panic. Klef needs to settle in a bit still, I think, but when he does, these two will be mint together
– Here are some more misleading stats since we’re on it: Larsson had a 34.38% all-situations Corsi For on the night, but could you tell by watching? I sure couldn’t. Could’ve been because he played 47% of his TOI against the Gaudreau/Monahan line, as per WheatNOil on Twitter (https://t.co/GqjIhEuD8r). He also started 75% of his shifts in the defensive zone. Leaning on him heavy already, I like it
– Poolparty got his 1st NHL goal on a beauty snipe under Elliott’s wide-open right arm. That’s nice. :] He also lead the team with a ridiculous 76.19% Corsi For rating in all situations, which came back down to earth a little bit at 5v5 with 58.33%, but still really good for the rookie’s first game in the bigs
– Brandon Davidson single-handedly saved, at least from what I saw, 3 sure Calgary goals. Some went off a well-positioned skate, some off his stick, some from getting his body in the way of a player in front of the net. BDavey is just so good and so solid, and that leads me into the other part of the night…

Things that sucked a little:

– So Tkachuk Jr is kind of a shithead, hey? He straight up slew-footed BDavey and he never returned for the 3rd. Still awaiting word on his condition/timeline for return. Fingers crossed it was precautionary. This kid just has no luck
– The Oilers allowed two pretty sloppy short-handed goals there in the 2nd, in what was just a classic #HereComeTheOilers 2nd period. I’d like to know the statistical metric that describes how we’re just so bad in the middle of games when we can start and end so strong
– Talbot was not the sharpest. He did stop 37 shots, but let 4 in for a .902 SV% in his first start of 2016-17. I mean, it’s no Brian Elliott .778 SV%, but we know he can be better. I chalk this up mostly to opening night/new building/don’t screw up this game of all game jitters
– Lucic played just okay. He sure made his presence felt early on when the Calgary goon squad figured they could throw McDavid around without repercussion, so that was good of him. But he gave up a really bad 2-on-1 opportunity and actually accidentally knocked one of those Calgary shorties in. So it’s just a matter of finesse at this point for him, I think. I hope.

Anyway. Numbers and analysis aside, we won 7-4 and start the year on a good note, and almost as importantly, Calgary starts the year on a lame note and that feels just as good if I’m honest.

Edmonton Oilers, Michael Sifeldeen, NHL, Prospects

Deep In The (Oil)Well

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We were having a discussion the other day in the BLH chat group, analyzing the sorry performance our boys put in against the Jets the other night and trying to figure out what it might mean come the start of the regular season. Yes, I know it’s preseason. We all know it’s preseason. But preseason is a great time to sit back see how the guys developed over the summer, evaluate line combos, and especially to see who amongst the fresh blood is really busting their ass every shift to make the show come October 14th.

We’re seeing that pretty consistently out of Caggiula, which a certain BLH writer may or may not have predicted back in July… I’m also seeing that fight in Versteeg; I think he’ll end up with a contract for at least a season, and I hope he can infuse some of his multiple-Stanley-Cup-winning magic vibes into this squad. Looch is still big and slow but he’ll get there. Even if he can’t quite keep up with McDavid yet and realize just how little work he actually has to do to rack up points just being on the ice with Him, he’ll get there, and his presence just makes me feel better knowing that the potential goons on opposing teams this season will absolutely be thinking twice before trying anything funny. Puljujarvi is looking okay, he certainly killed it in the junior games a couple weeks ago, but I don’t think his North American hockey IQ (or stamina) is quite there just yet, and he could definitely benefit from a few months at least in the A.

But I mean, other than that, it’s kind of business as usual with these guys, isn’t it? Kind of listless, a little soft, definitely on the razor’s edge of being a complete disaster dumpster fire of a season again should one of our big guys go down long-term, no? I can’t even begin to imagine what losing someone early in the season like Klef, or Ebs, or RNH, or god forbid, He Whose Collarbone Shall Not Be Named would do to this team. Which really brings us to the heart of the issue facing this Oilers team right now: Depth.

#prayforklefsfoot

This Oilers team, with the amount of seriously amazing skill it has up front, absolutely does not have the depth to be a serious contender this season if everyone isn’t running at 100% healthy for the vast majority of the season. Think about it this way: if Klef goes down, our top LHD is back to being Andre Sekera. If Larsson goes down, our top RHD is back to being Mark Fayne. (Now, I’d like to think BDavey could pick up that slack and run with it like he had to last season, but still, the point stands.) If Connor or Nuge or Leon suffers an injury, where are the classic “depth guys” to step in and at least attempt to fill that huge void? In Bakersfield? Doubtful. You know where they are? In Chicago, or Pittsburgh, or Los Angeles, even Florida and Nashville now to an extent. They’re being drafted and traded for and developed specifically by these teams to fill key depth roles with the understanding that top-12 forwards and top-6 defencemen occasionally need to be pushed into non-ideal minutes and situations. Do you picture Anton Lander or Griffin Reinhart or Iiro Pakarinen in your mind when you think of those situations? Because that’s what we’ve got.

You know who this team reminds me of the last few years? The late-90s-to-mid-2000s Blackhawks, just before they got Toews in 2006 and Kane in 2007. Train wrecks, basically. But remember, even when they got Captain Serious and Kaner, it still took them a couple years to become a serious playoff team. How did they do this? Why has Chicago won 3 of the last 7 Stanley Cups? Well it could be because they have two or three star players carrying the team. That would be an easy assumption to make; it’s been the case for some Stanley Cup winning teams throughout the years. Hell, it’s been the modus operandi of the Edmonton Oilers for the last decade. Draft a couple studs and screw the rest of the lineup, people come for the stars, and they’re who will get us to the cup. Right?

Except that’s not how the NHL works anymore. The Blackhawks have won 3 cups in 7 years because Niklas Hjalmarsson is a third pairing defender on that team. They have or have had the Andrew Ladds, the Marian Hossas, the Kris Versteegs, the Brandon Saads, and the Andrew Shaws to bolster their lineups and step up to fill the holes when need be. They aren’t the guys necessarily putting up 65+ point seasons ever year, but they are solid and reliable and tough, and teams stocked up in those particular skill departments are the teams who consistently string together winning seasons and ultimately end up wining championships.

As indescribably amazing as Connor McDavid is, he can’t win us a Stanley Cup on his own. As defensively sound as Adam Larsson is, he isn’t going to swing our goal differential into the positives on his own. As big and strong as Milan Lucic is, he isn’t going to be able to fight off the opposition on his own without the support of the third- and fourth-liners who we need to bring in to make this a playoff team for years to come. If we make the playoffs this season, suffice it to say that I will be surprised. We’re flush with skill guys, now we need to focus on the d-word. The Edmonton Oilers need to start trading for and drafting and developing depth players, and fast, before the p-word starts entering our vernacular in a serious way.

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